Feeding Britain’s Future 2014

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Young people from across the UK will have the opportunity to gain the skills they need to get into work when they visit one of the 18 Greencore locations taking part in in this year’s campaign to tackle youth unemployment this September.

After two successful years, the entire food and grocery industry is coming together to support Feeding Britain’s Future for a third time.

This comes as research conducted by food and grocery research and training charity, IGD of which Greencore Group is a member, revealed that Britain’s unemployed are finding it harder than ever to find work despite the economic recovery. To tackle this, the UK’s food and grocery industry, Britain’s leading private sector employer and responsible for 1 in 7 jobs, is once again opening its doors to provide free skills training for thousands of unemployed people.

Since 2012, more than 200 companies have offered 25,000 training opportunities across the UK as part of the campaign. 97% of participants report that they felt more confident about applying for a job and 89% as more likely to consider a job in the food and grocery industry since they took part in the campaign’s workshops.

In September, young people will have CV and interview sessions with HR managers at Greencore to help them develop their employability skills and improve their chances of getting a job.

As well as workshops to improve their soft skills, participants will have the chance to visit the manufacturing facilities, meet various members of the Greencore team, sample some of our great products and to see how the business is run and the range of careers available.

Earlier this year Greencore took part in a ‘School Pilot’ which saw major food and grocery companies go into schools to offer employability skills training to 13 to 17-year-olds and alert teachers to the variety of careers available in the sector.

This follows IGD research findings that Britain’s unemployed think employers should supplement schools’ careers advice with tailored employability skills, to help young people better understand what jobs might suit them and how to apply for them.

Feeding Britain’s Future, led by industry research body IGD, is the first initiative of its kind, giving young people access to farms, factories and stores, and first-hand knowledge of the skills needed for a career in the food industry or elsewhere.

Joanne Denney-Finch, chief executive, IGD, said:

“Despite the UK’s unemployment rate beginning to show some signs of improvement this year, we still have millions of people without work. As the UK’s biggest employer, the food and grocery industry is committed to playing its part in tackling unemployment but more than that, our research shows we need to respond to appeals from the unemployed to gain valuable insight into the roles available in this industry and specific skills required to find jobs in this sector.

Feeding Britain’s Future is in its third year and doing very well but our research highlighted the importance of our industry also offering advice before pupils leave school. The new ‘School Pilot’ element of the campaign not only gives companies the opportunity to inspire pupils on the variety of skills and opportunities our industry has to offer, but to also equip the next generation with the skills they need to find work.

Currently there are 611,000 job vacancies in the UK waiting to be filled and a large potential workforce who just need the right information to help to get those jobs. That’s exactly what our campaign is all about and our research highlights how incredibly powerful the industry can be at inspiring young people to consider the food and grocery industry as a career path.

Nottingham was been selected as this year’s pilot city though we have ambitious plans to roll this out across the country in future.”